Failure Is Not An Option
by MrDrP
Summary: Ron has a math test and both he and Kim are worried that his failing could lead to a fate gorchier than being trapped with a bunch of monkey ninjas or wearing Smarty Mart capris in public ... [COMPLETE]


A little something I whipped up for a contest over at RS net.

Thanks to campy for once again being my beta/proofreader.

Write a review, get a response – it's almost as good as cash!

If you saw it on _KP_, Disney owns it.

* * *

I.

The blue-skinned villain hovered over the controls of his device, muttering to himself.

"Yes, yes, this will work. This will work! Once I initiate the firing sequence of the cybertronic energy disruptor I will be on my way to global domination!"

He looked up at the giant red cannon, whose barrel pointed towards the sky. One blast at an orbiting relay satellite was all he needed to begin a cascade that would cripple every satellite in orbit.

Today he would strike. There would be no ranting, no raving, no threats, no demands. He would act and the world would have to deal with the consequences later. No mercy, not this time.

And no distractions, either. He knew Kim Possible would not respond.

Not today.

Not on her wedding day.

II.

"Girl, you look TBFW!" Monique gushed.

Mrs. Dr. Possible looked quizzically at her daughter's maid of honor.

"'Too Beautiful For Words,' Mom," a bemused Kim Possible explained. "You look pretty awesome too, Mon," she added.

"You are such a beautiful bride," Mrs. Dr. P. said, sniffling. "And you have a wonderful soon-to-be-husband. I'm so happy for you, honey!"

Kim smiled dreamily. "Yeah, he really is special, isn't he? Who'd have ever thought we'd reach this point after all these years?"

_Beep-beep-be-beep_

_Beep-beep-be-beep_

Dreamy romantic feminine expressions immediately turned into scowls.

_Beep-beep-be-beep_

_Beep-beep-be-beep_

Kim growled, but answered. Duty did call.

"What's the sitch, Wade?" she asked wearily.

Wade Load, wearing a tuxedo, looked chagrined, which was not surprising. He was one of the groomsmen.

"Sorry, Kim, but I just got a call from GJ headquarters," Wade said sheepishly. "Their SigInt department just decoded some encrypted messages and they've determined that he's going to strike. Today."

"Okay, I'm on it," she replied, shifting into mission mode. "Get me a ride, please and thank you."

"Already done, Kim. The limo will take you to the airport."

"Thanks, Wade. You rock," she said, a resigned look on her face.

Kim ended the call.

"Sorry, girls, it's a save-the-world thing," she offered with a sigh.

"Should I get …" her mother began to ask.

"Of course you should!" Kim interrupted. "I couldn't save the world without him! And tell him to make sure Rufus is ready to go, too," she added.

Half-suspecting, half-fearing something might happen – why not strike on the one day when Kim Possible would be otherwise occupied? – Kim had brought along her mission clothes. She quickly took off her gown and changed.

III.

They were riding in the limo to the airport.

"I am so sorry," Kim said, grabbing her fiancé's hand.

"Hey, these things happen. It's part of being Kim Possible's sidekick."

Kim rolled her eyes. "How many times to do I have to tell you? You're not my sidekick, you're my partner."

"You can call me anything you like, as long as you don't call me a taxi!"

Kim groaned, but smiled. "You are too much, you know that?"

"And as one of our foes says, you think you're all that … and you are!"

Kim leaned in to give her man a kiss. The ceremony may have been delayed, but their hearts were already joined as one.

IV.

Rufus was tweaked. The dastardly villain had done many rotten things in his time. But to disrupt the wedding day of his two favorite humans in the whole world – well, that was unconscionable. The naked mole rat was growling. Actually growling. And pacing the floor of the limo.

"Calm down, Rufus," Kim said. "I know how upset you are about this whole sitch, but it'll be okay; it's so not the drama. You'll be carrying those rings down the aisle in no time!"

Rufus smiled at the thought of that, then nodded. "Hokay!" he said, his irrepressible enthusiasm coming back to the fore. He relaxed, then found his way to a familiar cargo-pants pocket.

_I still want to bite him_, the smallest member of Team Possible thought. _He's such a creep!_

V.

The young heroes made their way through the HVAC system_. He's good_, Kim thought, as she recalled the various defensive systems she had to disable_. He's actually the most dangerous foe I've ever faced. But even he needs fresh air in his lair_. She grinned. _Thank heavens for ventilation shafts!_

"Geez, your butt really is cute, Kim!"

She turned and scowled. "Not now! Keep your head in the game!" Then her scowl softened into a smile. "Besides, you'll get to see it and a whole lot more later on!" she added impishly.

Her partner grinned. "Okay, head in the game!"

Kim pulled out the Kimmunicator and checked their position. _We're almost there_, she thought. They crawled a bit further, then reached their destination.

Kim signaled to Rufus, who scampered over. Holding him in her hand, she used his buck tooth as a screwdriver. Soon, she was able to remove the grille.

VI.

The cannon was fully charged and operational.

The target satellite would be in position within minutes.

The blue-skinned villain was prepared to act.

He was beginning to enter a series of commands when he heard something. He turned to see Kim Possible and her goofy-looking sidekick.

They even had the mole rat with them.

VII.

"This is low, even for you!" she snapped. "Do you know how long it takes to plan a wedding?"

"That should be the least of your worries, Kimberly Ann Possible!" he said before cackling.

"Oy, not with the full name again, Ron!" she said, rolling her eyes.

"It's Zorpox! You killed Ron!" he fumed.

"I so did not!" she protested. "I told you you had to work harder! It's not my fault you failed that math test. I am so not responsible for you turning evil!"

"'Sha! First the math test. Then the English test. Then the geography exam. You watched me go down in flames, Kimberly Ann. You let me play Zombie Mayhem when I should have been studying. You went shopping with Monique when I needed extra tutoring. It is your fault. And today you and the entire world will pay the price!" he snapped.

"Ron, lay off," Kim's partner said.

"You!" Ron snarled. "I thought you were my friend! We had a bond. You. Me. Diablo Sauce. But I'm on to you, Ned. Yes, I now know you had a nefarious plan to break up Kim and me and set me on the path to evil so you could replace me as her sidekick and be her new boyfriend. Well, you may have gotten the girl, but today I get the world!"

As Ron was ranting, Rufus quietly made his way to the controls of the cannon. Before Ron could react, Rufus had found a way to disarm the weapon. Sharp buck teeth and a surprisingly high IQ are a very potent combination, after all.

"Traitor!" Ron screamed as he saw what Rufus had done. "Some little buddy you turned out to be! I bet they bought you off with a naco with extra …"

Ned tackled Ron and brought him down to the floor as Rufus dragged over a pair of handcuffs.

"Hey, hey! I might need those!" Ron protested.

"Nice work, boys!" Kim enthused.

"Hey, we learned from the best," Ned replied as he secured Ron's wrists.

Kim then scowled at Ron. "You so had your chance. You blew it. If only you'd passed that math exam …" She then turned to her fiancé, took his face in her hands and gave him a deep, passionate kiss.

VIII.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

Ron woke up in a sweat, screaming. Trembling, he looked around the room. It was his room. He looked at his skin. Not blue. That was good.

Rufus, stirring beside him, gave him a look. "Sleep!" the naked mole rat mumbled.

Ron was struggling to control his breathing. "Nightmare. Worst. Nightmare. Ever."

He looked to his nightstand. There was the picture of Kim and him from the Junior Prom.

"Okay, KP. For you. For us," he said, willing himself out of his bed and to his desk. He turned on his lamp, opened his math book, and began to do another set of problems.

IX.

Kim woke up with a start.

She knew this dream. Ron had told her about it. But it had never included _him_.

Kim made a face. "Ewwww! I was kissing … Ned! Gorchy!" she said as she grabbed a glass of water to rinse her mouth. Even the idea of doing, well, anything with Ned made her queasy.

She could handle the idea of Ron as her arch-foe; there was actually something tragically romantic about it. And there was that fantasy she had that involved Ron as Zorpox and her in her cheer squad uniform, though she wasn't ready to tell her boyfriend about that just yet.

But kissing Ned. Marrying Ned. Doing … That was so not going to happen. Ever.

Kim, not taking any chances, got out of bed, quickly threw on some clothes, grabbed her knapsack, and slipped out the window.

Ron was going to pass his exam. Period.

X.

Ron was struggling with his work.

"Stupid polynomial," he grumbled. "Behave!"

He was so caught up in his studying that he didn't hear the window to his room open or Kim come up next to him.

On her way over Kim had prepared herself to rouse Ron from his bed to force him to do some more prepping for his test. There was so no way she was going to leave any possibility for that horrible Nedmare to come to pass.

None.

Nada.

Zip.

So finding Ron sitting at his desk already at work melted her heart. Kim wasn't sure that he knew just how much it excited her to see her Potential Boy trying.

"Maybe I can help you tame it …" Kim offered helpfully as she gently laid a hand on his shoulder.

"KP!" Ron said in surprise. "W-wha …"

"I had the weirdest nightmare, Ron. You failed your exam and, well, things didn't go very well after that," she said, looking at her feet.

Ron looked at Kim. The expression on her face told him that they'd just had another Mim-and-Jon shared dream experience. "Zorpox. Ned …"

Kim shivered. "Ewww. Don't remind me. It was so …"

"Awk-weird?" Ron suggested.

"I was thinking wrong-sick," she countered with a smile. She ran her fingers through her hair.

_She's so beautiful_, Ron thought. _Even in the middle of the night when her hair's mussed up_. He had a strong desire to kiss her. Kim could see that and felt similarly. She came around and cupped his face in her hands.

_One kiss. I can give him one kiss and then we'll study_, Kim told herself.

Ron sensed that a very pleasant make-out session beckoned. Unfortunately, the timing was ferociously bad.

_Time to be a man, Rondo_, he thought.

"Uh, KP, you know I'd like to and all, but since you came here for a reason, maybe we ought to …"

"Keep our heads in the game?" she finished his sentence, wearing a wistful grin.

"Yeah," he said, suddenly sounding surprisingly mature to Kim. "Now, see this problem, KP? Here's what I don't get …"

XI.

Ron gave Kim a quick kiss before she slipped out of his window. James Timothy Possible would have been shocked to know his daughter had spent the night alone unsupervised in her boyfriend's bedroom. He would have been even more surprised to learn that other than that one parting kiss, the naughtiest thing that happened was Ron's occasional use of a cuss word as he tried to master his math work.

Ron stumbled out of the bedroom, took a shower, got dressed, ate some breakfast and headed over to the Possibles' to pick up Kim for the walk to school.

The two teens made their way to Middleton High. Now that they were seniors, they didn't take all of their classes together. Kim was taking AP calculus while Ron was in the regular math class. Kim made sure to buck up Ron's spirits throughout the day in the lead-up to his test, which would take place during the last period.

Finally, the moment of truth arrived.

Ron walked into the classroom and took his exam from Mr. Barkin.

He read the questions and began working.

Fifty minutes later the bell rang and Mr. Barkin announced the test was over. Ron had just set his pencil down. He really wasn't sure how he had done. There was nothing he could do now, other than try mightily to suppress the previous night's nightmare.

He went to the men's locker room and suited up for cheer practice, then wandered into the gym, his mascot head in the crook of his arm. Ron smiled with amazement that he could be faced with a room full of hot cheerleaders yet have eyes only for one: Kim. _Man, does she look good in that outfit!_ he thought.

Kim smiled at him and waved. She wanted to talk with Ron about the test, but Marcella and Hope were on a tight schedule and the practice needed to begin immediately. For the next sixty minutes, the squad did its routine; at the appropriate moments, Ron joined in and did his part.

Finally, the practice ended. Ron was sitting on the bleachers when Kim approached and sat down next to him.

"So, how'd my Mad Dog do on his test?" she asked.

"I dunno, KP. At least I tried. I did answer every problem, which may have been a first for the Ronman!"

"Well, nice work, Ron," Kim said, taking his hand. "You tried and that's all I can ask."

"So, if I didn't do well, you won't dump me?" he asked, still unable to completely banish his fears.

Kim pulled a face then wrapped her arms around his neck and brought her lips to his.

"Possible! Stoppable!"

Their kiss was interrupted by the booming voice of Steve Barkin.

"What have I told you two about PDA?" the older man growled.

The two teens' shoulders sagged. "Sorry, Mr. Barkin," they said. Kim brightened and whispered, "Jinx, you owe me a soda!"

Ron sighed. A kiss denied and a soda owed. Now Barkin was probably going to tell him he'd failed his test.

"You two hit by any weird rays?"

Surprised, Kim and Ron shook their heads.

"No mind swaps?"

Another shake of the heads.

"Neural implants?"

"Mr. Barkin," Kim finally asked, "what's this all about?"

"This!" Barkin said as he thrust Ron's exam into their faces. Their eyes focused on the letter and symbol surrounded by a circle, all written in red ink: B+. "Well, Stoppable, since there was no outside interference, it appears that congratulations are in order." The teacher handed Ron the exam, then turned and began to leave before he looked back at Kim and Ron. "Carry on."

"Huh?" Ron, perplexed, asked.

A sly grin spread across the assistant principal's face. "You. Possible. Lip smacking. It seems to be helping your grades. I think I can overlook a little PDA today. But don't make a habit of it!"

XII.

"Well," Ron said after they finished complying with Mr. Barkin's order. "This has been one strange day."

Kim, resting her head against Ron's shoulder, smiled. "You think?"

The two teens sat quietly for a few moments, enjoying the peace, solitude, and one another's company.

Then Ron's stomach growled.

"Hungry much?" Kim asked.

"Heh heh. Guess Rondo needs some snackage," he admitted.

"I think I could go for some, too," she conceded.

They looked at each other, then smiled.

Neither of them needed a Mim-Jon dream connection to know Bueno Nacho was just not an option. There was simply no way either of them could look at Ned without losing their appetites.

"So, how about pizza?" Kim asked.

"I'm all about pizza, KP!" Ron said as he stood and took his girlfriend's hand.

She got up with him, and they left the gym together, still holding hands.

Not surprisingly, neither of them ever wanted to talk about that particular dream again.

_The End_


End file.
